Anecdotally, last week I (middle aged lady) was approached by two strange men. One tried to grab me outside my work site, and one told me how lovely I was and asked for my number (in target). It’s much, much worse for young women. It’s not manufactured, unlike the doubt of women’s lived experience seems to be.

I have yet to meet a woman I'm close enough friends with who doesn't have a personal sexual assault story. Not a harrassment story, an SA story. Could just be bad luck but i don't think it is. It also lines right up with the statistic that 3/4 women get sexually assaulted before 30 (that stat is from memory, but I'll try and track it down in a bit.)

I believe It is much worse than you think.

EDIT: so on the stat I popped: NSVRC says 1 in 5 women in their lifetimes and RAINN says 1 in 6 in their lifetime. It's been a while since i'd read that stat so it makes sense it'd be off.(though it is disappointing just how far off it ended up being, big whiff on my part) Those stat pages also have numbers for men as well

I'm pretty sure it's much, much worse than you think. In fact, I'm fairly sure it's much worse than I think. Men don't experience it, women are reluctant to talk about it because some men react aggressively to claims that men react aggressively.

i didn't speak in detail about the very many numerous times i've been sexually harassed in public only because it's too depressing to think about lmao

I get your point, but if you actually go out and speak with women who trust you, chances are they will all have multiple stories of harassment and/or SA that will make your skin crawl. It's not just fearmongering, there are a lot of awful men out there (in absolute terms)

I'm surprised how many (well-meaning) men are clueless about this horrible aspect of life which is so universal for women.